Urbanization and Carbon Emissions: A Nationwide Study of Local Countervailing Effects in the United States

Urbanization and Carbon Emissions: A Nationwide Study of Local Countervailing Effects in the United States

Objective. This study advances a theoretical framework for examining the impact of urbanization on local carbon emissions over space and time. It conceptualizes urbanization at the local level as a set of three distinct but related subprocesses of population concentration, land-use intensification,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science quarterly 2014-09, Vol.95 (3), p.795-816
Main Authors: Elliott, James R., Clement, Matthew Thomas
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Carbon
Carbon emissions
Climate change
Counties
Emissions
Environmental problems
Households
Human ecology and demography
Interaction
Of General Interest
Regression Analysis
Rural and urban sociology
Social sciences
Sociology
Space and Time
Spatial analysis
Transportation
U.S.A
United States of America
Urban sociology
Urbanization
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Summary:Objective. This study advances a theoretical framework for examining the impact of urbanization on local carbon emissions over space and time. It conceptualizes urbanization at the local level as a set of three distinct but related subprocesses of population concentration, land-use intensification, and systemic interaction, which join together to exert countervailing effects on local carbon emissions. Methods. To test this framework we conduct cross-sectional and panel regression analyses of carbon emissions at the county level across the continental United States, controlling for spatial autocorrelation. Results. Findings strongly support our framework and show how different dimensions of urbanization push against one another at the local level to influence carbon emissions in ways that exert far more consistent effects than household density and alternative transit use. Conclusion. These findings illuminate the complexities of urbanization as a local force of environmental transformation with increasingly global consequences.
ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237